U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said Washington was investigating the air strikes and “if we determine that we did indeed strike Syrian military personnel that was not our intention and we of course regret the loss of life”. The US admits that they inadvertently targeted the Syrian forces, but claim that in a statement by the US Central Command claim that they warned Russian Federation prior to the bombing.
Advertisement
The Syrian army said the strike allowed Islamic State fighters to briefly overrun their position.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry had similar words, according to spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
Syrian ally Russian Federation said 62 Syrian soldiers were killed and at least 100 more wounded in strikes by “warplanes from the worldwide anti-jihadist coalition”.
Putin, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said he remained “positive” about the truce but lashed out at rebels. It called the strike a “serious and blatant attack on Syria and its military”, and “firm proof of the US support of Daesh and other terrorist groups”, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, said in a statement that American warplanes carried out a strike south of Dair Alzour but it could not confirm that they hit Syrian forces.
The area in eastern Syria where the airstrike took place is not part of the ceasefire.
Syria’s army has been fighting off a fierce offensive by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militant group on the Deir Ezzor military airport since a year ago.
The Russian military said two F-16 and two A-10 jets flew into Syrian air space from neighbouring Iraq to carry out the strikes.
The Russian Foreign Ministry says Lavrov told Kerry that Russia has coordinated the aid delivery with Syrian government forces and called on Washington to exercise similar influence with Syrian rebels.
While the ceasefire has reduced fighting, some violence has persisted across Syria.
Saturday’s developments come amid an already fragile ceasefire brokered by Russian Federation and the United States.
Konashenkov stressed that right after the attack, “terrorists” launched an offensive against Syrian troops.
“I don’t really understand why we have to keep such an agreement closed”, Putin was quoted as saying Saturday during a trip to Kyrgyzstan.
Russian military observers near the besieged city of Aleppo said they had so far recorded 199 violations from the Islamist rebels supported by the US.
“Apart from the United States, there are other countries supporting militants against the Syrian army”.
Advertisement
“There is no change”, Zakariya Malahifji, an official for a rebel group in Aleppo, said on Saturday when asked whether there had been any move by the army to withdraw from positions along the road. He did not identify which country in the coalition they belonged to.
